Let’s Pray: Detroit

The Detroit airport is the weirdest one I pass through regularly. There’s the cool fountain and the irritating but points-for-trying tunnel of light– and, it turns out, a chapel, or, as it’s called, a “religious reflection room,” which I found via this interesting post.

I’m trying not to be totally weak with the salat, it being Ramadan and all, and it was time for maghrib and I had a long layover anyway, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Hard to find! The hallway leading to the elevator leading to the room is small and hidden right next to a women’s bathroom. No, I’m not a pervert, just a religious extremist. I’m sure the guards were amused.

Not just anyone is allowed!

I have authorization....from Allah subhana wa ta'alla!

Plus, they will fuck your shit up:

They're not kidding. They will take that badge away, my friends.

And after that, maybe the least inspiring room in the world.

Helpfully, there's a compass on the carpet.

I’m not sure why there isn’t an arrow indicating qibla. It’s an airport, after all, and travelers might not know exactly the compass point for Detroit. (Blackberry to the rescue! It’s due northeast.) And not to be ungrateful but the carpet is nasty. I don’t know what other religious traditions have been up to, but it seems to involve a lot of spilled soda and snack crumbs. On the other hand it beats making salat in the terminal, which is sure to lead to a lot of new and opinionated friends.

This is officially an award-winning blog

HNN, Best group blog: "Witty and insightful, the Edge of the American West puts the group in group blog, with frequent contributions from an irreverent band.... Always entertaining, often enlightening, the blog features snazzy visuals—graphs, photos, videos—and zippy writing...."

12 comments

I’m pretty sure the tunnel itself doesn’t play the theme song from Siberiade, but does have some cool space music sounds. (I thinkthe video doesn’t show the light display as well as it might, unfortunately.)

I’ve seen those “reflection centers” in many airports but that one looks even more grim than most.

Just to put things in perspective. Southeastern Michigan has the largest concentration of Arab-Americans in the US. Many, many observant Muslims (some Arab Christians also – mainly Maronites and Chaldeans). Like many immigrant communities, they are somewhat concentrated geographically, the Dearborn area is heavily Arab-American. Muslims praying is nothing unusual around here and being seen praying publicly in a Metro Airport terminal would be unlikely to inspire any hostile commentary.

JPool. – I don’t know for sure – but I presume that the “NE qibla thing” is because the actual shortest distance from Detroit to Mecca would follow a “Great Circle route” – which would start by heading to the NE. It is true that a constant compass heading route (which would be the shortest straight line you could draw on a Mercator map) would run ESE – but that would not be the shortest distance. Get yourself a globe, and a piece of string, put one end at Detroit, the other at Mecca – and pull it tight – then look at what direction the string is leaving Detroit, and I bet it is to the NE.

a great circle is not the shortest distance to Mecca, just the shortest distance to Mecca on the surface of the earth.

Raising the interesting prospect of Muslims kneeling to pray head-lowermost on carefully-angled planks which point exactly at Mecca. (Praying in, say, Hawaii, at the antipode from Mecca, would require a handstand, or possibly dangling by the ankles from some sort of supporting beam.)

FWIW, if you’re ever traveling through Pittsburgh, Neddy, we have a lovely RRR (albeit one that is about as difficult to find). It’s on the top level, and features (IIRC) windows and clouds painted on a blue ceiling. Quite nice. Don’t know about a compass.